We'll never regain our global edge if we don't close the domestic gaps that separate low-income students and students of color from their peers. The challenge is daunting. But the strategies and tactics to reverse these dangerous trends are well-known, if not yet widely practiced.

Could a personal-feedback loop help recent immigrants learn English more quickly? Might the idea be applied to concepts like voter registration or proper prenatal care, both of which are issues within the Latino population?

It's no skin off my nose if someone sees the ring on my finger and asks me about the wife they envision me having. But it's a drag for a six year-old to feel like she has to answer questions about her family unit for strangers.

With the loss of two New York seats, the question arises: which two districts out of the 31 will be made to disappear by whichever legislative body, independent commission or Federal court ends up drawing the final lines?

Virgil Peck's feeble attempt at humor lines up with the more overt shrieking of those conservatives who are terrified of Latinos, immigrants, undocumented people, or all three. They know that their mindset, once the default setting for the nation, is fading away.

So while Wall Street is celebrating a record year, Fifth Avenue boutiques have recovered and the tony Upper East Side has continued on in its well-heeled way, a few stops up the 6 train the Bronx is reeling.

There are 118,000 fewer African-Americans in New Orleans than in the previous census. We know that approximately 100,000 of them were evacuated after Katrina, but we don't know where those people are now.